The present invention relates to electro-optical devices. More particularly, the present invention relates to an electrical connection configuration of the electronics of an electro-optical device to the lenses of an eyewear.
Electro-optical devices providing electric current to an eyewear lens are known, a sampling of which may be seen in the following U.S. patents:
U.S. Pat. No. 4,756,605 issued to Okada et al on Jul. 12, 1988 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,795,248 issued to Okada et al on Jan. 3, 1989 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,848,890 issued to Horn on Jul. 18, 1989 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,968,127 issued to Russell et al on Nov. 6, 1990 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,951 issued to Nikon Corp. on Feb. 12, 1991 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,795 issued to Senatore on Nov. 26, 1991 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,218 issued to Black et al on May 19, 1992 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,552,841 issued to Gallorini et al on Sep. 3, 1996 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,279,474 issued to Belgorod on Jul. 21, 1981 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 4,462,661 issued to Instrument Flight Research on Jul. 31, 1984 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,015,086 issued to Seiko Epson Corp. on May 14, 1991 PA0 U.S. Pat. No. 5,114,218 (see above)
The above patents shown and discuss a variety of electro-optical devices including devices which can alter the transparency of an eyewear lens (e.g., electrochromic and liquid crystal devices), devices which can prevent dewing of the lens (e.g., transparent heat resistor) and devices which can automatically change the color of a lens (e.g. as seen in the '218 patent). In all electro-optical devices, the power source and electric circuit must, of course, be electrically connected to the lenses of the eyewear. In the sampling of electro-optical devices discussed above, the location and manner by which this is accomplished varies considerably. For example, in the '890 and '605 patents, the power source and certain electronic components are contained within the temples of the eyewear which contain wire leads traveling through the hinge area to the front frame and finally to the lenses of the eyewear. Eyewear temples have been typically chosen in the past to house batteries due to the size of the batteries, depending on the type of battery employed. If the power source and/or circuitry is contained within the temple portions, an electric pathway must be established through the hinge area to reach the lenses contained in the front frame. However, the manner by which the electric leads are fed through the hinge area of an eyewear is notoriously difficult due to the repeated opening and closing cycles of the temple, and the deleterious wearing effect this imparts on the electric leads. This problem is addressed, in part, by U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,951 to Nikon which uses a split metal eyewear frame to supply the electric path to the lenses, with the negative traveling through the bottom half of the frame and lens and the positive traveling through the upper half of the frame and lens. Since the upper and bottom halves of the frame are mutually electrically insulated and used as the electric pathway, no separate wire leads are necessary. While the Nikon patent solves the problem of passing electric leads through the hinge area of an eyewear, the requirement of a specially configured, split framework for the eyewear is a drawback which imposes added cost and significant design restraints on the eyewear.
With the advent of miniaturized batteries and electronics (e.g., integrated circuit designs), the power source and circuitry may be positioned entirely within the front frame thereby negating the need for separate electric leads through the hinge area of the eyewear. Examples of this type of arrangement may be seen in the following U.S. patents:
In each of the above patents, the power source and/or electronic circuit is permanently integrated into the eyewear frame, usually requiring some special adaptation of the frame to accommodate the electrical components. This again involves added cost to the eyewear product and imposes significant design restraints on the appearance and other functionality of the final eyewear product.